After an overnight passage we arrived in Banggai where again we were able to buy fuel easily. The winds in this part of the world are fickle and often below the 10 to 12 knots we need to sail at a reasonable pace of 4 knots plus so we must carry enough diesel to motor when necessary. In this case we had learnt that we could take the dinghy up a small and very dirty river to a petrol station.

We did this only to find that the garage was absolutely packed with men getting fuel in cans for their fishing boats. Thinking we would be in for a long wait we were surprised to be waved to the front of the queue and we were away in 10 minutes. It is just remarkable how much even the rough and ready element in the population is so cheerful and happy to help us. I am just sorry that I did not have a camera as they so enjoy having their photographs taken. The town did not have much to recommend it so we pushed on to Pulau Sidoela, an island visited and recommended by Duncan and Ria on yacht Sea Topaz last year.

     It was a very picturesque island.....

.....and proved to be a good anchorage.

We found good holding in sand and coral rubble with beautifully clear water and a very nice beach with gorgeous shells including tiger cowries.

We soon had a curious fisherman aboard.  His name was Max and he lives a very simple life on the island with a few family members. One of our snorkelling masks was lying on the table in the cockpit and he asked us if he could have it. As it happened we had decided to get a new one each so we gave it to him together with the snorkel. He then picked up our binoculars and clearly enjoyed using them, at which point I remembered we had an old pair that were originally my father’s and which we no longer used so we gave them to him too. Needless to say he was overjoyed so we ended up not only having a guided tour of the island but in the evening were invited to meet his mum, dad and wife.

These were some of the traps Max lays, hand-made from local materials. His simple canoe had a small engine which he had taken out of the boat and was working on. I never discovered what the problem was but we hope it was not something serious as these people rely on their craft both for transport and for their fishing livelihood.

Lorraine feels tall.

Mama Max